Day 4: Eric Cantor Continues Silence on
Limbaugh's Anti-Semitic Rant Despite Plenty of Criticism for President Obama
While Overseas

For
four days now, Congressman Eric Cantor - the second ranking Republican in the
House - has refused to condemn Rush Limbaugh's outrageous comments
comparing Democrats to Nazis. Numerous Jewish organizations have since come out
and condemned Limbaugh's reprehensible remarks. While traveling overseas,
Cantor has yet to criticize Rush Limbaugh's hateful comparison of Democrats to
Nazis, but he has had no shortage of criticism of President Obama.
Senator John McCain has said it is ‘totally inappropriate' for a
Member of Congress to criticize the President while overseas.

"While
Congressman Eric Cantor has refused to condemn Rush Limbaugh's hateful
comparison of Democrats to Nazis for four straight days, that hasn't stopped
him from criticizing the President while standing on foreign soil," said
Jennifer Crider, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee. "Congressman Eric Cantor needs to finally show some courage and
immediately stand up to Rush Limbaugh and condemn his outrageous comments."

On Rush Limbaugh

Eric Cantor on August 1, 2009:

"My
sense is that we need the ... Rush Limbaughs..." Cantor says.
"We need all of them." [Haaretz,
08/01/09]

Rush Limbaugh on August 6, 2009:

"... the Democrat Party and where
it's taken this country, the radical left leadership of this party bears much
more resemblance to Nazi policies than anything we on the right believe in at
all..." [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 08/06/09]

Anti-Defamation League on Rush Limbaugh

"Regardless of the
political differences and the substantive differences in the debate over health
care, the use of Nazi symbolism is outrageous, offensive and
inappropriate," Anti-Defamation League chief Abe Foxman told ABC News.
"Americans should be able to disagree on the issues without coloring it
with Nazi imagery and comparisons to Hitler. This is not where the debate
should be at all." [Haaretz,
08/08/09]

The American Jewish Congress on Limbaugh

"The Limbaugh comments comparing Obama (and Pelosi) to Hitler and the Nazis are
grossly offensive and intolerable. They reflect a nasty and hyperbolic tendency
on our political culture, one which makes reasoned discourse impossible,
confuses disagreement with evil, and which makes it impossible to distinguish
evil from ordinary politics. ... It behooves all participants in the
political process to unequivocally disavow the comparison and to make it plain
that peddlers of such noxious comparison have no place in our politics, no
matter how large their audiences. And all Americans should make plain
their disgust at the comparisons by talk show hosts by a prompt use of the off
button." [ABC, 08/7/09]

The Simon
Wiesenthal Center
criticized those who have injected Adolf Hitler into the discussion of
President Obama's health care plan.

"It is preposterous to try and make a connection between the President's
health care logo and the Nazi Party symbol, the /Reichsadler/" said Rabbi
Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center.
[JTA, 08/7/09]

Eric Cantor's continuing reaction to Limbaugh's
hateful statements:

[silence]

On President Obama

Eric Cantor on August 6, 2009:

"We are concerned about what
the White House has been signaling as of late in their desire to push through
in terms of a Middle East peace plan." [The
Hill, 08/6/09]

Eric Cantor said Washington
should be focused on the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran
instead of pressuring Israel
over Jewish settlements. [Voice of America,
08/09/09]

On Members of Congress
Criticizing The President While on Foreign Soil

Senator John McCain in 2002:

"These are members of Congress. If
these members of Congress want to go to the floor of the House and criticize the president of the United States until the cows come
home, fine with me, but don't go overseas... That is not
appropriate behavior and I don't think it will be very well received by the
majority of the American people. It's totally inappropriate." [CNN, 10/2/02]